Athens School of Law

The Athens School of Law was founded in 1837 as a Department of the “University of Othon”. The first seat of the School of Law was in the old Kleanthi Residence in Plaka. It was later transferred to the current central building of the University of Athens, founded in 1839, and later to the buildings on Sina and Solonos streets, where it remains to this day.

From 1862 to 1911, the School of Law formed part of the “National University of Athens”, as it was called, after the eviction of Otto. In 1911, the “Kapodistrian University” was founded to fulfill a condition in the will of Ioannis Dompolis, a benefactor from Epirus. The new institution functioned as a distinct legal entity with its own property and encompassed the Schools of Theology, Law and Philosophy. The impact of the School of Law on Greek society and the political life of the country was decisive. Despite the significant influence from foreign legal sciences (initially French, and later more German), the work of most Professors, certainly enlightened by the experience of other related legal systems, aimed at an independent Greek legal science and was basically focused on addressing the major Greek needs and Greek legal texts.